Superman (1940s cartoons)

The Superman animated cartoons, commonly but somewhat erroneously known as the "Fleischer Superman cartoons" were a series of seventeen animated Technicolor short films, released by Paramount Pictures between 1941 and 1943, based upon the comic book character Superman.

"Superman" was Fleischer Studios' final animated series before Famous Studios took over production on September 20, 1942.

History

The first nine cartoons were produced by Fleischer Studios (the name by which the cartoons are commonly known). In 1942, Fleischer Studios was dissolved and reorganized as Famous Studios, which produced the final eight shorts. These cartoons are seen as some of the finest, and certainly the most lavishly budgeted, animated cartoons produced during The Golden Age of American animation. In 1994, the series was voted #33 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field.

By mid-1941, brothers Max and Dave Fleischer had recently finished their first animated feature film, "Gulliver's Travels", and were deep into production on their second, "Mister Bug Goes to Town." They were reluctant to commit themselves to another major project at the time when they were approached by their distributor, and owner since May 1941, Paramount Pictures. Paramount was interested in cashing in on the phenomenal popularity of the new "Superman" comic books by producing a series of theatrical cartoons based upon the character. The Fleischers hoped to discourage Paramount from committing to the series, so they informed the studio that the cost of producing such a series of cartoons would be about $100,000 per short -- an amazingly high figure, about six times the typical budget of a six-minute Fleischer "Popeye the Sailor" cartoon during the 1940s.Maltin, Leonard (1980, rev. 1987). "Of Mice and Magic." New York: Plume. Pg. 120 - 122] To their surprise, Paramount agreed to a budget of $50,000Barrier, Michael (1999). "Hollywood Cartoons". New York: Oxford University Press. Pg. 304.] - half the requested sum, but still three times the cost of the average Fleischer short - , and the Fleischers were committed to the project.

The first cartoon in the series, simply titled "Superman", was released on September 26, 1941, and was nominated for the 1942 . It lost to "Lend a Paw", a Pluto cartoon from Walt Disney Productions and RKO Pictures.

The Fleischers produced nine cartoons in the "Superman" series before Paramount took over the Fleischer Studios facility in Miami and ousted Max and Dave Fleischer, due to the fact that the brothers were no longer able to cooperate with each other, and the studio's co-owner Dave Fleischer had left Florida to produce Screen Gems cartoons for Columbia Pictures in California as well. [ [http://www.cartoonresearch.com/paramount.html Paramount / Famous Studios Titles ] ] The sleek look of the series continued, but there was a noticeable change in the storylines of the later shorts of the series. The first nine cartoons had more of a science fiction aspect to them, as they involved the Man of Steel fighting robots, giant dinosaurs, meteors from outer space, and other perils. The later eight cartoons in the series dealt more with World War II propaganda stories, such as in "Eleventh Hour", which finds Superman going to Japan to commit acts of espionage in order to reduce the morale of the enemy.

Rotoscoping, the process of tracing animation drawings from live-action footage, was used extensively to lend realism to the human characters and Superman. Many of Superman's actions, however, could not be rotoscoped (flying, lifting very large objects, and so on). In these cases, the Fleischer lead animators, many of whom were not trained in figure drawing, animated roughly and depended upon their assistants, many of whom were inexperienced with animation but were trained in figure drawing, to keep Superman "on model" during his action sequences.

The first seven cartoons originated the classic opening line which was later adopted by the "Superman" radio series and in the live-action television series a decade later: "Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!" However, for the final two of the first nine Fleischer-produced cartoons and first of the eight Famous Studios-produced cartoons, the opening was changed to "Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to soar higher than any plane!". With the changeover to Famous Studios and the loss of the Fleischers, the opening line of the cartoon series was changed to "Faster than a streak of lightning! More powerful than the pounding surf! Mightier than a roaring hurricane!" This series also continued (from the radio series) the use of the now-classic exclamation: "Up in the sky, look! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman!"

Famous Studios ended the series after a total of seventeen shorts had been produced, replacing it with a series of shorts based upon Marge's "Little Lulu". The high cost of the series kept it from continuing in the face of budgetary restrictions that were imposed after removing the Fleischers from the studio. The first cartoon had a budget of $50,000 (equivalent to $1,316,000 today), and the other sixteen each had a budget of $30,000 (equivalent to $789,600 for each of the eight other Fleischer cartoons and $731,111.10 for each of the eight Famous Studios cartoons), bringing the total cost of the series to $530,000 (equivalent to $13,481,688.80 today). In addition, Paramount citing waning interest in the "Superman" shorts among theater exhibitors as another justification for the series' cancellation.Maltin, Leonard (1980, rev. 1987). Pg. 312]

All seventeen cartoons were sold to Motion Pictures for Television (producers of the TV series "The Adventures of Superman") in 1955, and all eventually fell into the public domain (their copyrights having not been renewed by either Paramount, NTA/Republic, EMKA, Ltd./Universal Studios, or even Motion Pictures for Television and DC Comics), and have been widely distributed on VHS, laserdisc, and DVD. Nonetheless, Warner Bros., via parent Time Warner's ownership of DC Comics, now owns the original film elements to the cartoons.

The voice of Superman for the series was initially provided by Bud Collyer, who also performed the lead character's voice during the "Superman" radio series. Joan Alexander was the voice of Lois Lane, a role she also portrayed on radio alongside Collyer. Music for the series was composed by Sammy Timberg, the Fleischers' long-time musical collaborator.

A 1944 Famous Studios "Popeye the Sailor" cartoon entitled "She-Sick Sailors" parodied the Superman cartoons, two years after production on the cartoons had ceased. In this cartoon, Popeye's enemy Bluto dresses up as Superman to fool Olive Oyl, and he challenges Popeye to feats of super-strength that "only Superman" can do. The musical score for "She-Sick Sailors" includes echoes of Sammy Timberg's Fleischer/Famous "Superman" score.

In a rare move for a competing studio, Leon Schlesinger Productions, producers of "Looney Tunes" and "Merrie Melodies" (which were distributed by WB), featured Timberg's Superman theme in "Snafuperman", a 1944 Private Snafu cartoon Schlesinger produced for the U.S. Army.

Influence

Decades later, the series strongly influenced the creation of the acclaimed animated television series ', the 1990s ', and the feature length film "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow." Award-winning comic book artist Alex Ross has also listed the shorts among the inspiration for his take on Superman's look. Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki was influenced by the robots from "The Mechanical Monsters" short and used designs based on them in his feature film, "Castle in the Sky" and the last episode of the second "Lupin III" TV series. Other famous animators, such as Osamu Tezuka ("Astro Boy"), also say they were heavily influenced by these films. [ [http://fiaf.chadwyck.com.erl.lib.byu.edu/fulltext/indexFullText.do?id=004/0222882&area=index&resultNum=10&queryId=../session/1179349366_4163&QueryIndex=quick&activeMultiResults=back&jid=006/0000306 International Federation of Film Archives] ] The 2006 film "Superman Returns" also pays homage to these "Superman" cartoons. A 1988 music video for the song "Spy In The House of Love" by Chrysalis Records recording artists Was (Not Was) borrowed footage extensively from the Fleischers' "Secret Agent" episode.

Availability

The Paramount "Superman" cartoons are widely available on VHS and DVD, usually in budget-line releases of varying quality due to their public domain status. Among the best reviewed of these was a 1991 VHS set produced by Bosko Video, titled "The Complete Superman Collection: Golden Anniversary Edition - The Paramount Cartoon Classics of Max & Dave Fleischer" released as two VHS volumes which featured high-quality transfers from 35mm prints. The Bosko Video set was issued on DVD by Image Entertainment as "The Complete Superman Collection: Diamond Anniversary Edition" in 2000. The Bosko Video release was not associated with DC Comics or their parent company Warner Bros. Pictures in any official way.

Another DVD was "Superman: The Ultimate Max Fleischer Cartoon Collection" from VCI Entertainment released on May 30, 2006, a month prior to the release of the film "Superman Returns". DVD features included: all 17 animated shorts digitally restored in Dolby Digital 2.0 audio; a bonus cartoon: "Snafuperman" (a 1944 Warner Bros. wartime parody of the Fleischer cartoons, featuring Private Snafu and produced for the U.S. Army); "Behind the Cape" synopses and fun facts with each cartoon; a DVD fold-out booklet with notes on the series; bios of the voice actors, producer Max Fleischer, and Superman; a bonus trailer for the 1948 "Superman" serial with Kirk Alyn; and a recorded audio phone interview with Joan Alexander (the voice of Lois Lane). This release, like the Bosko Video release, was not associated with DC Comics or their parent company Warner Brothers.

The first "official" home video releases of the series were by Warner Home Video in 1987 and 1988, in a series of VHS and LaserDisc packages called "TV's Best Adventures Of Superman". Four volumes were released, where each volume contained 2 selected episodes of the classic 1950s TV series "Adventures of Superman" (one black & white episode and one color episode), plus a selected Max Fleischer "Superman" short (marking the first "official" release of such as Warner holds the original film elements).

A more "official" release from restored and remastered superior vault elements was released on DVD on November 28, 2006 as part of Warner Home Video's Superman re-releases. The nine Fleischer Studios cartoons were released as part of the four-disc special edition ' set, and the eight Famous Studios cartoons were included on the two-disc special edition "Superman II" set. The entire collected Fleischer / Famous cartoons were included in the box sets "The Christopher Reeve Superman Collection" and "Superman Ultimate Collector's Edition", where both sets also included a 13 minute short documentary on the history of these cartoons, entitled "First Flight: The Fleischer Superman Series". This documentary features interviews with surviving members, relatives and biographers of the animation and production team, also contemporary animators such as Bruce Timm ('), Paul Dini and Dan Riba ("") who detail the influence these cartoons have had on their own works.

Another came on July 1, 2008, when Warner Bros. released the shorts on iTunes, via their DC Comics sections. Fourteen of the shorts are available for $1.99 for every two, while the other three are all in one video for the same price.

Filmography

As all of these cartoons are now in the public domain, [ [http://chart.copyrightdata.com/c03B.html Citations and Summaries - CopyrightData.com ] ] free downloadable links from the Internet Archive have been provided where available.

Fleischer Studios

1941

* "Superman" (a.k.a. "The Mad Scientist") (September 26) [ [http://www.archive.org/details/superman_1941 Internet Archive: Details: Superman ] ]
* "The Mechanical Monsters" (November 28) [ [http://www.archive.org/details/superman_the_mechanical_monsters Internet Archive: Details: Superman: The Mechanical Monsters ] ]

1942

* "Billion Dollar Limited" (January 9) [ [http://www.archive.org/details/billion_dollar_limited Internet Archive: Details: Billion Dollar Limited ] ]
* "The Arctic Giant" (February 27) [ [http://www.archive.org/details/arctic_giant Internet Archive: Details: Arctic Giant, The ] ]
* "The Bulleteers" (March 27) [ [http://www.archive.org/details/bulleteers Internet Archive: Details: Bulleteers, The ] ]
* "The Magnetic Telescope" (April 24) [ [http://www.archive.org/details/magnetic_telescope Internet Archive: Details: Magnetic Telescope, The ] ]
* "Electric Earthquake" (May 15) [ [http://www.archive.org/details/superman_electric_earthquake Internet Archive: Details: Superman: Electric Earthquake ] ]
* "Volcano" (July 10) [ [http://www.archive.org/details/superman_volcano Internet Archive: Details: Superman: Volcano ] ]
* "Terror on the Midway" (August 28) [ [http://www.archive.org/details/superman_terror_on_the_midway Internet Archive: Details: Superman: Terror on the Midway ] ]

Famous Studios

1942

* "Japoteurs" (no studio is credited on the original opening titles, September 18) [ [http://www.archive.org/details/japoteurs Internet Archive: Details: Japoteurs ] ]
* "Showdown" (October 16) [ [http://www.archive.org/details/showdown Internet Archive: Details: Showdown ] ]
* "Eleventh Hour" (November 20) [ [http://www.archive.org/details/superman_eleventh_hour Internet Archive: Details: Superman: Eleventh Hour ] ]
* "Destruction, Inc." (December 25) [ [http://www.archive.org/details/destruction_inc Internet Archive: Details: Destruction Inc ] ]

1943

* "The Mummy Strikes" (February 19) [ [http://www.archive.org/details/mummy_strikes Internet Archive: Details: Mummy Strikes, The ] ]
* "Jungle Drums" (March 26) [ [http://www.archive.org/details/jungle_drums Internet Archive: Details: Jungle Drums ] ]
* "The Underground World" (June 18) [ [http://www.archive.org/details/superman_underground_world Internet Archive: Details: Superman: The Underground World ] ]
* "Secret Agent" (July 30) [ [http://www.archive.org/details/secret_agent Internet Archive: Details: Secret Agent ] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.freemooviesonline.com/watch-free-cartoons/superman.html Watch All Superman Episodes (17) - Super Quality]
* [http://www.supermanhomepage.com/movies/movies.php?topic=m-fleis2 The Super Guide to the Fleischer Superman Cartoons]
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034247/ Superman (1941) at IMDB]
* [http://www.timbergalley.com Timberg Alley - website of Sammy Timberg, the composer for the Superman cartoons]
* [http://www.flixens.com/the_real_heroes_of_superman_part_3 "The Real Heroes of Superman" essay on Max Fleischer from Flixens.com]

Movie downloads

* [http://www.toonamiarsenal.com/features/superman/ Toonami Digital Arsenal ]
* [http://supermanthrutheages.com/fos/thescreen/cartoons/ The Original Superman Cartoons]
* [http://www.hopeandtube.com/vod/superman/ VOD - Superman Cartoons] 7 cartoons in Ogg Theora.
* [http://cinemaniacal.com/collection/1940s-superman-cartoons Cinemaniacal] has the cartoons for Xbox, ipod, iphone, zune, psp, and more.
* [http://www.vintagetooncast.com/search/label/superman Vintage ToonCast] : all 17 cartoons in flash, iPod, and Quicktime formats.